Victor Levin (‘Alice and Jack’ creator) on the limited series’ message: ‘Love is something worth fighting for’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

This interview contains spoilers about the final episodes of “Alice and Jack.”

“What if we look at the slightly less well-scrubbed version of how people fall in love and conquer obstacles, if they can, and either come together in the end or don’t?” is the question at the heart of the PBS/Masterpiece limited series “Alice and Jack” according to creator and writer Victor Levin. The show, which follows the two title characters over the course of 15 years as circumstances repeatedly bring them together and drive a wedge between them, is predicated on “the idea of messiness,” shares the writer, adding that he wanted to take “the gloves off” in his exploration of this relationship. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

“Alice and Jack” is unique in how it follows its title characters over nearly two decades, occasionally in non-chronological order. As Levin explains, “The timeline of the story was integral to the story and it was there right from the start.” The writer needed to depict that many years because he believes that storylines in which romantic partners “solve one problem and then everything’s great” ring false. This approach also allowed him to “find a way to respect” the audience, who have certainly seen works of fiction about relationships before.

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Levin is no stranger to writing about relationships, having served as an executive producer and writer on the Emmy-winning comedy series “Mad About You.” He says that both that sitcom and “Alice and Jack” have a message in common, namely, that “love is something worth fighting for, it’s problematic, and you’re going to drive each other crazy and there are going to be times when you’re in despair, but it’s worth it.” The creator wanted to tackle something different in this limited series than has been explored before because “there are a lot of really big obstacles that have been well-trod, and this was kind of a new one, it presents problems that others didn’t present.”

Bringing Alice and Jack to life on screen are Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough and Domhnall Gleeson. Levin shares that he devised and wrote the series with these two performers in mind. “I had them in my head from the very beginning, those two people out of 8.1 billion people on Earth,” states the creator, adding that what appealed to him about these actors is their “gentleness as people” and “their incredible levels of talent, not just talent but skill.” As a result of the duo signing on early and remaining committed to the project, the writer was able to pen most of the scripts knowing who would be portraying his central figures. He reveals, “I had written the first one and the last one and an outline for the stories in between, which is what they read when they signed on.”

WATCH our exclusive video interview with Andrea Riseborough, ‘To Leslie’

One of the standout scenes of the limited series occurs at the end of the second episode. While attending a kite festival together, Alice, who has already abruptly exited Jack’s life a handful of times and has led him to a divorce from his wife and the mother of his young daughter, opens up to Jack about a childhood trauma that has continued to impact her. “Without that scene you do not understand Alice’s backstory,” says Levin, adding that as a result, “You can imagine how much blood, sweat and tears went into that scene” in terms of the writing. The unique setting of this pivotal conversation – during which Alice also breaks up with Jack because she fears their relationship would end in ruin – came to the creator serendipitously as he “stumbled on a flyer” for a real kite festival in the location where the show would be shooting. He explains, “That was the way in because it’s such a childlike thing to like kites, isn’t it? But even as an adult, you’re sort of transfixed by them.” The writer calls this moment “the single most important scene in the series.”

So much transpires between that painful breakup and the final episodes of the show, by which point Alice and Jack have become best of friends before Jack decides to be a sperm donor for Alice. A visit to her fertility doctor leads to the devastating discover that she has terminal cancer. Her death, in turn, triggers a syndrome of Jack’s that causes him to suffer an aortic aneurysm and pass away, too. Levin says of this devastating end to the series, “I felt that it was the only way for the story to end in terms of the plot events… anything else would be cheating, would be dishonest, would be deus ex machina, would feel fake, and I didn’t want to do it.” The writer does “hold out hope” that “love was powerful enough to transcend even this obstacle, even death.” To that point, the series ends by showing a scene from the past in which Alice and Jack unexpectedly reunited in Cuba after a particularly long estrangement, which he included in the final minutes of the series to show their “point of freedom and peace and contentment” and what amounts to their “moment of greatest happiness.”

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